William Shakespeare's Hamlet

	Do you think Hamlet and Laertes are a like, or different? In the play Hamlet written by William Shakespeare Hamlet and Laertes show some signs that they are a like and some show there different, taking revenge, having feelings for people and the thoughts and actions of people. These two characters are very alike with only a few differences which in their lifestyle and attitude.

	Hamlet is the kind of person who likes to think things through thoroughly before he acts and does stuff. Hamlet does that after the play The Murder of Gonzago when Claudius leaves in an up roar, Claudius goes to pray for forgiveness and Hamlet has the chance to kill him but he thinks about it and decides it would not be a good idea. He does not kill Claudius because he is asking for forgiveness for his sins and if Hamlet was to kill him, Claudius would go to heaven and Hamlet wants him to rot in hell.

		"Hamlet: No might I do it pat, now he is praying;

		 And now I’ll do’t: and so he goes to heaven:

		 And so am I revenged. That would be scann’d:

		 A villain kills my father; and, for that,

		 I, his sole son, do this same villain send

		 To heaven.

		 O, this is hire and salary, not revenge.

		 He took my father grossly, full of bread,

		 With all his crimes broad blown, as flush as May;

		 And how his audit stands who knows save heaven?"

		(Shakespeare, Hamlet, III, iii, 74-83)

Laertes on the other hand is the exact opposite of Hamlet, he does not think before he does things. Laertes acts out of anger and jumps to conclusions.

		"Gentleman: Save yourself, my lord:

		 The ocean, overpeering of his list,

		 Eats not the flats with more impetuous haste

		 Than young Laertes, in a riotous head,

		 O’erbears your officers. The rabble call him lord;

		 And, as the world were now but to begin,

		 Antiquity forgot, custom not known,

		 The ratifiers and props of every word,

		 They cry, "Choose we! Laertes shall be king!""

		(Shakespeare, Hamlet, IV, v, 96-104)

The way both Hamlet and Laertes deal with there problems will eventually lead to their deaths which could have been easily averted if they had went about their ways differently.

	Hamlet and Laertes had to think things through or act out of anger because both of their fathers were murdered. Hamlet’s uncle Claudius murdered hamlet’s father, King Hamlet, and Laertes father, Polonius, got murdered by Hamlet.